Israel escalates offensive in Gaza, Hamas rocket commander killed

posted at 8:41 am on July 10, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

Israel achieved one of its objectives in the offensive against Hamas in Gaza yesterday as it escalated the intensity of its attack overnight. The Jerusalem Post and other Israeli media report that a missile attacked killed Aymat Siam, the Hamas commander in charge of the group’s artillery forces:

The Israel Defense Forces killed a senior Hamas operative who headed the Islamist organization’s vast arsenal of rockets that have intermittently pounded the western Negev for over a decade, Channel 10 is reporting on Thursday afternoon.

According to Channel 10, a joint Shin Bet-IDF operation resulted in the killing of Ayman Siam, one of the most wanted Hamas figures.

Channel 10 is reporting that Siam was killed in a strike as he was driving in a vehicle in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israel dramatically escalated its aerial assault in Gaza Thursday hitting hundreds of Hamas targets, as Palestinians reported 16 people killed in strikes that hit a home and a beachside cafe and Israel’s missile defense system once again intercepted rockets fired by militants at the country’s heartland.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said Israel struck more than 320 Hamas targets overnight, focusing on underground tunnel networks and rocket launching sites. That brought the total number of targets hit to 750 in three days of the massive offensive that has killed at least 80 Palestinians.

Lerner said Israel has already mobilized 20,000 reservists for a possible ground operation into Gaza, but for the time being Israel remained focused on maximizing its air campaign. A ground invasion could lead to heavy civilian casualties on the Palestinian side while putting Israeli ground forces in danger.

President Shimon Peres, whose role is largely ceremonial and is not involved in setting policy, said in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson that he believed a ground offensive “may happen quite soon” unless Hamas stops firing rockets at Israel.

“We warned them. We asked them to stop it,” Peres told Anderson. “We waited one day, two days, three days and they continued, and they spread their fire on more areas in Israel.”

While Peres was speaking on his own and his position may not outline an official government policy, Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz earlier told CNN that a ground operation “might become necessary.”

Peres most recently went on a trip to the Vatican with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, who complained that the IDF was imposing “collective punishment” on Gaza:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, convened an emergency meeting of his cabinet on Wednesday to discuss the crisis.

“This war is not against Hamas or another political party but it is against the Palestinian people,” he told the media afterward. “What do you call this crime? What is this crime known under international law? To kill entire families, is this collective punishment? This is called collective genocide.”

The PA may have some arguably legitimate complaints about “collective punishment” in the West Bank, but that’s not what is happening in Gaza. The residents of Gaza voted to put Hamas in charge of its government after the Israelis ended the occupation there. Hamas has conducted continuous acts of war against Israel, constantly firing artillery into civilian areas. Israel has the right to respond to those acts of war, and has no obligation once war is under way to use proportionate force, although they do have to act within the bounds of international treaties to which they are signatories in the conduct of the war. If Gaza does not want war, then they should endeavor to remove Hamas from government.

With that said, though, this is yet another tiresome repeat of a cycle that has gone on in this region for decades. Hamas isn’t interested in peaceful coexistence, which means the state of war is constant. Talking to Israel to restrain its response is ultimately useless because Israel isn’t the problem in this part of the conflict. Until Hamas decides to live with Israel, there will be no peace in Gaza, and as long as Abbas keeps inviting Hamas into his PA government, the pursuit of a lasting peace in the West Bank will ultimately be futile, too. Hamas may not be the worst of the terrorist groups in the region, but that relative standing doesn’t turn them into a partner for peace either.

Blowback

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The irony here is that Israel is actually benefitting from Obama’s dithering weakness “joke of the world” status. Obama has no leverage here at all. He can’t stop them from putting Hamas down, which they MUST do.

Obama’s weakness is Israel’s window of opportunity.

The only thing Obama could do is go stark raving lunatic on behalf of the muzzies, which only would reinforce his irrelevancy.

Nuke ‘em. If someone was tossing hundreds of rockets into my Town everyday, I personally would use every single weapon in my arsenal to stop them, and to H. E. Double Toothpicks about what anyone else thinks.

Until Hamas decides to live with Israel, there will be no peace in Gaza, and as long as Abbas keeps inviting Hamas into his PA government, the pursuit of a lasting peace in the West Bank will ultimately be futile, too.

Hard to see where this is going to resolve itself so long as Israel exists. Hamas will never agree to the terms that would make such co-existence possible. Abandoning the call for right of return and giving up demands to re-establish the 1968 borders for two examples.

We should drop the idea that any Palestinian “authority” can be, or wants to be, a “partner for peace”. All they want is Israel gone and every Jew on Earth dead. To be followed by all other “infidels” dead or enslaved.

They are doctrinaire Islamists. And Islam’s doctrine allows no other worldview.

Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. With all the UN money poured into “humanitarian efforts”, making children was the easiest way to earn sustenance. That plus chronic joblessness is a perfect breeding ground for “freedom fighters”, which was, of course, the original reason why the UN created it. The problem will NOT be solved without mass genocide from one of the sides, possibly both, and I fervently hope that the people and the government of Israel will eventually come to understand that, and put their humanity on temporary hold.

ABC dramatically escalated their adjectival descriptions in their reporting of the pummeling Hamas is receiving from Israel in response to Hama’s unremitting and, fortunately, pathetically amateurish attacks on them.

“This war is not against Hamas or another political party but it is against the Palestinian people,”

Yes, Mr. Abbas. That is the way it works. The Palestinian people support, fund, and give cover to Hamas, then the Palestinian people have war waged against them. There are no innocent Palestinians just as there were no innocent Nazis in Germany.

My fervent hope is that Israel musters the fortitude to mercilessly and completely wipe out the verminous Hamas, and Hamas supporters whoever they may be, in short order.

You, Mr. Abbas, made your bed with terrorists presumably under pressure from your people. Now you must all pay the price.

Could someone please inform the media that there is no such animal as “the Palestinian people?” They’re Arabs. They’re ethnically and genetically indistinguishable from Arabs in Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Hamas is just the front line of the Arab world.
Destroying their fighting capability, which basically entails slagging Gaza and possibly the West Bank, would bring the rest of the region (plus imported Islamic “freedom fighters”) into the hot war. With most of Europe and a lot of Americans on the Muslim side, Israel would be vastly outnumbered and outgunned.
So, winning would take a little bit longer.

Only way to stop the Arabs is to forcefully put them down once and for all. It’s the only thing they will respond to. Israel shouldn’t care what we or anyone else in the world thinks. They will be condemned (and especially by our dear leader if he can get away from his fundraising) one way or the other. If this was your country being attacked constantly, you’d do what you need to protect yourself.

PA may have some arguably legitimate complaints about “collective punishment”

No they don’t. All you have to do is search the web to find videos of palascsum parading their children in bomb vests wile carrying signs that say “death to Israel” to learn that the palascum get what they deserve. They don’t want peace and have never wanted peace. They want israel exterminated and they want the world to help them do it, and it is.

Some reporter on CBS this morning was calling Hamas “militants”. Militants don’t constantly fire rockets at civilian targets. Terrorists do. I’m sorry I watch new on CBS this morning. I know better than that.

And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the earth so much I miss my wife
It’s lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight
Oh no no no I’m a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone

It is time to let Israel get the job done.
Obama’s disinterest in Israel is a green light to flat out decimate the opposition. They should attack and crush leaving no ability to confront Israel again for a long time.

Yes. And we don’t want the fall out going down wind to Egypt, because Egypt is currently playing hardball with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Just carpet bomb the border, then carpet bomb a little deeper and a little deeper until the entire population of Gaza is backed up to the ocean and let them swim for it. “Driving them into the sea” can cut both ways. (I’d be really interested to see how many rescue boats their fellow Muslim Arab “brothers” send in to rescue them)

Abbas has no power over Hamas to order them to stop the rockets. He rejects responsibility for the rocket attacks as a result. All he can focus on is to propagandize so his benefactors Norway and Sweden and Cynthia McKinney will get riled up.

Killing a few of the Hamas leaders is not going to solve this problem, that has been tried before to no avail. Hamas and the Palestine Authority have to be totally destroyed, it is insane to allow a terrorist group to live on your border that kills your people at will. We in this country are going to have this same problem with our southern border if we don’t wake up soon and take control.

From my perspective I find it VERY interesting why the AMD (anti-missile defense) ‘experts’ in the West are being very quiet about now and we her noting like: ‘It’ll never work.’
“Paging doctor Postal, please pickup the white courtesy phone.”

Not an insurmountable problem if you have the right minds and money.
Tell you who is watching this REAL CLOSE … Mr. Putin and our good internet friends … the Chinese.

From my perspective I find it VERY interesting why the AMD (anti-missile defense) ‘experts’ in the West are being very quiet about now and we her noting like: ‘It’ll never work.’
“Paging doctor Postal, please pickup the white courtesy phone.”

Not an insurmountable problem if you have the right minds and money.
Tell you who is watching this REAL CLOSE … Mr. Putin and our good internet friends … the Chinese.

Ed, what’s with all the preaching and weird terminology?
What [former] “occupation” of Gaza? What do you mean “they do have to act within the bounds of international treaties to which they are signatories”? It’s as if you’re calling them out on it. What, did you see something indicating they’re violating these? Wussup with the preachin’, brother?

I hope this is you preemptively crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s in a long disclaimer about your meaning or something.

I miss Allah’s (not “Allahpundit” – what a PC bullshiit name) old photoshops from the 2nd intifada when he brutally made fun of these fooking barbarians against whom yet another round of war is being conducted now. Please stop with these gay disclaimers and dry moralizing.